It's been 5 days since they left the Drum Kingdom, and the Going Merry continues its slow journey toward Alabasta, and right now Luffy's stomach was rumbling.
"I'm starving... The fish aren't biting..." Luffy complained, hungry.
"LUFFY, it's your fault because you even ate the bait! If we don't have bait, the fish won't bite!" Usopp said angrily while Vivi came down the stairs.
"You ate it too!" Luffy said in his defense.
"I only ate what was on the lid of the bait box." Usopp said.
"Everything would be easier if Oliver brought out more food" Luffy said with a smile.
"That you guys ate what is supposed to be your food for a day in just breakfast is not my problem. So if you want to keep eating, get to fishing, I don't plan on letting the rest starve because of you" Oliver told them, watching them fish.
"Luffy-san, Usopp-san, did you catch anything?" Vivi asked with a smile.
Suddenly Vivi heard Karoo's squawk, which confused her until she saw that the two of them were using the poor animal as bait.
"AAAAAAAAAAHH! KAROO!" Vivi yelled worriedly.
"I wonder if we can catch a shark."
"I want to catch a Sea King."
"What are you doing to Karoo?!" Vivi said in an annoyed tone, grabbing Luffy and Usopp by the head and smashing them together.
The two fell off the railing, which lifted Karoo, saving him from being fish food.
'I feel like I'm forgetting something' Oliver thought while trying to remember.
"What is that?"
Vivi looked ahead where a large amount of smoke blocked their view right where they were going.
"Smoke!" Vivi shouted.
"What is that?" Usopp said strangely, already standing up next to Luffy while they continued fishing, still using Karoo as bait.
"Could it be cotton candy?" Luffy asked hungrily.
"Why do you think that's food?" Oliver said to him.
"I'll go call Nami-san." Vivi said, running alarmed towards the kitchen.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Nami was drawing one of her maps, Chopper was reading one of his books, and lastly, Sanji was doing nothing in particular.
"Nami-san, we have a problem! Come quick!" Vivi said alarmed, so everyone came out of the kitchen to see what was going happen.
"Don't worry, it's nothing. It's just steam." Nami said calmly.
"Steam coming from the sea?" Vivi asked confused.
"Yes, it's a hot spot." Nami said.
"What is that?" Luffy asked.
"It's an area where magma is produced. There is an underwater volcano beneath that area."
Nami explained, making Luffy understand.
"A volcano under the sea?" Chopper asked.
"That's right. There are more underwater volcanoes than volcanoes on land." Nami explained to the little reindeer.
"It's not food, so I don't care." Luffy said losing interest and continuing to fish.
"With a volcano like that, a new island will be born in thousands or tens of thousands of years." Nami said with a smile.
"You are wonderful, Nami-swan!" Sanji said praising her as always.
"What an amazing phenomenon." Vivi said.
"Besides that, they can serve as an almost limitless source of energy" Elegg said.
"Tens of thousands of years... I wonder if I can live that long." Luffy said.
"You are human, I think you should die before then." Usopp said while Karoo continued squawking.
"Did you catch anything?" Sanji asked the two of them.
"Sanji, I'm hungry. Cook something." Luffy told him while his stomach rumbled.
"You're hopeless... I'll go to the storage to look thoroughly if there's any food left." Sanji said, walking towards the storage.
"Shouldn't we wear a mask because of the sulfur?" Elegg asked.
The ship sailed through the steam, making everyone cough as they inhaled it.
"It reeks of sulfur!" Usopp said, disgusted.
"I can't see anything! This steam is everywhere!" Luffy yelled.
"Hang in there. We should be through it soon." Nami said, also disgusted.
When they finally came out of the steam, Luffy and Usopp were shocked to see what they had caught.
"DAMN IT! Why did I suddenly jump onto the duck I came across?!" A strange man said, looking at Karoo, who had tears in his eyes.
"Is it human?" Luffy asked Usopp confusedly while sweating.
"No idea." Usopp said equally confused.
The man let go of Karoo, falling into the sea, unable to swim and sinking.
The crew helped the extravagant okama out of the sea, and he was now aboard the Merry.
"I thought I was going to die... I am grateful to you. I never would have thought I would be saved by completely unknown pirates. I will not forget your kindness in my entire life! Could you give me some hot soup?" He thanked and asked.
"WE DON'T HAVE ANY!" Everyone shouted at him angrily.
"We can't just feed a stranger" Oliver said, staring intently at Mr. 2.
Just then, the strange man looked at Vivi.
"Wow! You are quite a beauty! You're my type! I want to eat you!" The strange man said with a smile, blowing her a kiss and winking at her.
'What a weird guy.' Vivi thought feeling repulsion at his attempt to flirt.
"So you can't swim either" Luffy said.
"That's right, because I ate a Devil Fruit" The strange man told him.
"Really? What kind?" Usopp asked him.
"Well, I have to wait for my ship to come back for me so I'll give you a shocking demonstration. This is my power!"
The strange man slapped Luffy hard across the face, causing him to fall backward.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Zoro shouted at him, grabbing his katana.
"Wait! Wait! This is part of my demonstration" He said with Luffy's voice but with a strange accent. "I told you it would be a shocking demonstration!"
Zoro, who was about to attack him, stood still upon seeing how the strange man now had Luffy's face and voice.
"Huh? But that's my face!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Impressed?! Impressed?! Gahahaha!" The strange man laughed, striking a strange pose while most were surprised. "If I touch myself with my left hand, I return to normal. This is the power of the Clone Clone Fruit."
"The voice"
"Even the physique is the same"
Nami and Usopp were impressed as well as terrified by the capability of that Devil Fruit.
"WOW!" Luffy exclaimed, impressed, but then saw how he only touched the faces of the others. "And why did you hit me?!"
The strange man touched the faces of Nami, Usopp, Zoro, and Chopper who were right there, until he tried to touch Elegg, but Oliver made him step back.
"If I just touch their face with my right hand I can imitate anyone like this" The man said, changing form for each one until he reached Nami. "Down to the smallest detail"
The strange man opened his coat, showing Nami's naked body, causing Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy to widen their eyes, so Nami immediately hit all 4 of them.
"Stop!" Nami told him furiously.
"He's just as perverted as Sanji. He's lucky I wasn't the one who hit him" Oliver said, somewhat angrily.
"If he had touched me, everyone would have seen me naked. Thanks for that" Elegg thanked him.
Oliver hearing that almost imagined it, so he quickly dismissed the thought.
"Hey, are you okay?" Luffy asked him, crouching down.
"So much pain... I'm sorry, but this is all I can show you." The strange man said, getting up.
"You're amazing! Do it again!" Luffy urged him while Usopp whistled with his fingers and Chopper raised his arms, yelling.
"Well, if you insist, I'll have to..." The strange man said, raising his leg like a ballerina.
"Alright!" The three yelled happily.
"They're excited!" Nami said with Zoro lying on the floor.
"Let them be, let them have fun. That way they won't complain about the food" Oliver told her.
Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper were having fun with the man while the rest didn't understand why.
"Hey, isn't that a ship?" Oliver asked, pointing at the ship, trying to change the subject.
The man stood on the edge of the ship.
"Is it time to say goodbye already? What a pity." He said, making the three of them alarmed and sad.
"Don't go!" Usopp begged him while tears formed in his eyes.
"Don't be sad. Journeys are always accompanied by farewells. But don't forget this. Friendship has nothing to do with how long people have known each other. Don't cry!"
The man jumped to the other ship, causing the three to start crying and saying goodbye.
"Let's go, boys!" He ordered his subordinates.
"Yes, Mr. 2, Bon Clay-sama!" All his subordinates said at once, giving a military salute.
Bon Clay's ship quickly sailed away, leaving the crew surprised upon discovering the identity of the okama they saved.
"MR. 2?!" Usopp yelled, surprised.
"That's Mr. 2, Bon Clay..." Vivi said, shocked.
"Vivi! You didn't recognize his face?!" Luffy asked her.
"No. I was never able to see Mr. 2 or Mr. 1 and his partner. I didn't know their powers either. Though I had heard rumors. Mr. 2... is a ballerina with a big trunk and who talks like a woman. He always wears a jacket that says 'Okama way' on the back." Vivi said with a hand covering her mouth while she trembled.
"You could have noticed." Almost everyone complained to her for not having noticed that it was Mr. 2.
"Among the faces he had stored in his memory... my father's face was among them. The face of the King of Alabasta, Nefertari Cobra." Vivi told them, fearing what they could end up doing with that.
"If you could impersonate a king, you could do some really wicked things." Zoro said.
"We let a really dangerous guy go" Usopp said, worried.
"Is he our enemy?" Chopper asked confused.
"It could be a problem if he's on the enemy side. If he finds out we are his enemy... If he transformed into one of us using his memory, we wouldn't be able to trust our own companions." Nami explained, thinking of a possible conflict.
"Now I'm more grateful he didn't touch my face" Elegg said.
"Yeah, but it still means he's someone dangerous who can change into anyone else in the crew" Oliver said.
"Really?" Luffy asked, not finding this to be a problem.
"Listen, Luffy..." Nami was going to explain to him, but Zoro
"Wait. It's true that your opinion is unfounded, but you're right when you say we shouldn't be afraid. We should consider ourselves lucky to have been able to see him. That way we will know what to do against him." Zoro said with a smile.
--
--
--
If you want, you can follow me or support me on Patreon, where there will be 4-5 additional chapters on top of the 4-5 that are uploaded weekly on Webnovel.
Khaunique patreon